Leon Thomas - Gold Sunrise on Magic Mountain (1971)

Even before his tenure with Pharoah Sanders, Santana and Archie Shepp, avant garde jazz vocalist Leon Thomas was a force to be reckoned with. Recorded live on June 18, 1971 at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, this performance showcases Tomas's ability to wow and amaze.

Occupying a precarious position between jazz and the occult, Thomas's performance is both pithy and wild. This probably has to do with the environment it was recorded in. When Thomas sings, "It's five o'clock in the morning," he isn't just reciting the standard blues lyrics - it actually was five o'clock in the morning. Regardless, the audience that had been crowded into the smoke filled casino since eight the previous evening was still eager for more only to be stopped by festival officials who had to pull the plug.


The band was comprised an all-star lineup. It features, Cornell Dupree on guitar, Oliver Nelson on alto sax, Neal Creque on piano, Victor Gaskin on bass, Sonny Morgan on congas, David Lee, Jr. on drums, and Nana Vasconcelos on percussion and berimbau (the instrument that opens the track Na Na).

The album is tour-de-force and will probably leave you wondering the same thing as the Swiss yodellers up the hill from Montreaux - how did this guy get so good?



Vinyl ripped @ 320 kbps

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